Mashrafe to play as long as he wishes: Papon

Dhaka- Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) president Nazmul Hasan Papon on Tuesday said they have not taken any decision to remove national ODI skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza form the team or scrap his captaincy.”BCB has no plan to remove him (Mashrafe) from ODI captaincy, rather he can continue as long as he wishes,” the BCB president came up with the remark while talking reporters at Mirpur in the city.“Still there is no alternative of Mashrafe. If he wants, he will continue as captain. There is no chance or possibility to remove him,” BCB boss added.Under the captaincy of Mashrafe, Bangladesh reached in the quarterfinal stage for the first time in the ICC World Cup 2015 in Australia.Mashrafe captained Bangladesh ODI side to play in the semifinals stage of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, also for the first time in this world event.Making his international debut in a Test match in November in 2001, Mashrafe has so far played 36 Tests, 179 ODIs and 54 T20Is for the national side. Mashrafe captained Bangladesh in one Test, 37 ODIs and in 26 T20Is.Under his captaincy, Bangladesh tasted one win in Test format, 23 wins in ODI and 9 wins in T20I format.After the retirement from T20 format on April 4, just before the Tigers 1st T20I battle of a two-match series against Sri Lanka in Colombo, there were buzzing in different media outlets that Mashrafe would go for retirement from ODI cricket before the ICC World Cup 2019.UNB news agency